Safety on tour: Guidelines for safe transportation

Staying safe on tour has never been more important. And a big component of your student travel experience is transportation – the way you’ll be traveling both to and from your destination and throughout the trip itself. In our last post, we shared our latest safety best practices. Today, we’re focusing on how we’re traveling safely, whether we’re hitting the road or taking the skies. 

On the road

While we plan student travel experiences all over the world, over 80% of our trips are “drive-able,” which means cost-saving transportation via motor coach. In the past, we’ve shared our best practices for traveling by bus, and while all of these recommendations still apply, we’ve updated our guidelines to better accommodate our current travel season. Here are a few updated standards: 

• BRT will ensure our partner bus companies adhere to one of two recommended cleaning schedules produced by the American Bus Association. One is a 10-point critical touch cleaning multiple times a day. Or a 32-point sanitation procedure where the driver disinfects 32 critical touch point and includes a fogging machine.
• We recommend all passengers wear masks while traveling via motor coach and leave the first 2 seats in either row open for driver distancing.
• We recommend passengers use assigned seating for the duration of their trip.
• We recommend buses load from the rear of the coach forward and disembark from the front of the coach to the rear.

 In the sky

Traveling by airplane may involve a few more logistics, but with expert planning, air travel can be incredibly simple. Airports have increased security measures in recent months to provide an even safer travel experience and we’ve updated our internal processes accordingly:

• We recommend all passengers arrive at the airport earlier than usual to allow for health screenings prior to travel. This could include a written health form to be completed at the airport and temperature check prior to boarding the aircraft.
• We recommend all travelers wear face masks while in the airport and for the duration of their of flight. Many airlines currently require that all passengers wear face masks for the duration of the flight.
• The BRT team will advise groups of specific airline procedures and policies prior to travel and highlight those carriers leaving middle seats open for social distancing.
• We recommend travelers bring their own food to reduce contact during the flight. In addition, we suggest travelers bring an empty water bottle to take through security and fill prior to boarding the aircraft to reduce contact.

 Most importantly, we ensure that everyone involved in each trip – from directors to parents – understands the current TSA recommendations.

We’re committed to creating travel experiences where students can travel clean, travel confidently and travel memorably – we call this commitment BRT Cares. These safety guidelines give our travelers peace of mind, whether they’re traveling in the months to come or planning a trip in the future. This series of safety-focused blog posts will also include updates to our policies related to lodging, restaurants and attractions, so stay tuned! To receive ongoing updates, join our email list